I did not try to crack LTSB, but I think that it's similar to other Windowses. You're downloading MSDN iso from torrents (which you can verify by checksumming and googling), you're installing fake license server somewhere and you're activating your copy with that fake license server. No need to crack or run anything and fake license server is open source, so you can even compile it yourself and run from VM or VPS or whatever.

I wouldn't even call that stealing, as many folks legitimately want stable Windows and MS does not want to sell LTSB to them.

How can you possibly trust open source software in 2019? Do you pore over all the code checking it? I'm gonna assume in most cases no, and that you trust the community who do actually do that. Same with pirated software. I'll trust a known group, because they have a history of clean releases, as opposed to a corp, who often have a history of shenanigans and spyware and whatnot.

Well to be fair, pirates are far more honest and helpful than corporations.